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'Perhaps humankind can't bear too much reality, but neither can it bear too much unreality, too much abuse of the truth.' (Saul Bellow)

'448 OMAR KHAYYÁM Omar had a personality; I, for better or worse, have none. In an hour I’ll have strayed from what I am at this moment; tomorrow I’ll have forgotten what I am today. Those who are who they are, like Omar, live in just one world, the external one. Those who aren’t who they are, like me, live not only in the external world but also in a diversified, ever-changing inner world. Try as we might, we could never have the same philosophy as Omar’s. I harbour in me, like unwanted souls, the very philosophies I criticize. Omar could reject them all, for they were all external to him, but I can’t reject them, because they’re me.' (F Pessoa)

'Mrs Glass looked over, abstractedly, at the blue bathmat, across the tiled floor. Zooey stood as still as possible, in order not to break her mood. "You can't live in the world with such strong likes and dislikes," Mrs Glass said to the bathmat, then turned again toward Zooey and gave him a long look, with very little, if any, morality in it. "Regardless of what you may think, young man," she said.' (JD Salinger)

'Art only begins where imitation ends.' (Oscar Wilde)

'"I like zooey's blog," Steiner would say, "It's the only internet site with a foyer. Saul and I often meet there, by the ethereal kiosk. The ice-cream is splendid."' (ThetisMercurio)

'What is the use of telling people repeatedly that the Society is not a sect and then behave as if it were one?' (Steiner)

'Laughter means distance. Where laughter is absent, madness begins. The moment one takes the world with complete seriousness one is potentially insane.' (Jens Bjørneboe)

'If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.' (Oscar Wilde)

'Let's act like sphinxes, however falsely, until we reach the point of no longer knowing who we are. For we are, in fact, false sphinxes, with no idea of what we are in reality. The only way to be in agreement with life is to disagree with ourselves. Absurdity is divine.' (F Pessoa)

the basics

the posts on this blog are written by alicia hamberg, with the guidance of mr dog, canineosophist, and with inspiration from rudolf steiner, anthroposophist, and the rest of our friends, people, dogs and various strange beings who hang out with us in this extraordinary ethereal kiosk

Leaving aside the mad spiritual claims (for the moment – well forever really), I’m mostly struck by the extremely poor standard of the dancers. If one is learning a series of movements from childhood through to adulthood, (years of practice, in other words) one might at least expect some measure of success. But what an ungainly and wooden bunch they seem to be. And their starting position? Right hand raised in a salute.. now what does that remind me of?

You know, actually this is very awkward, but a couple of years ago my younger brother (who only had two years of waldorf kindergarten), told me that I might want to avoid doing a certain movement with my right arm. I was doing it unconsciously, *when waving*!!!! And I waved a lot at him, for some reason.

Perhaps I learnt it in waldorf. No, just kidding. But maybe. Not as a Hitler salute though. I don’t think that’s what they’re doing — consciously or unconsciously. It would not be very good marketing, anyway.

I should probably avoid waving altogether; I don’t have full control over my movements, and I’m not really able to predict their effect on innocent by-standers (who might not expect this kind of greeting).

But of course you’re right: waldorf students continue to clumsily trod around, waving aimlessly with their arms, at the direction of a eurythmist who nobody listens to. It’s really a failure, and none of the kids care.

I assume that most of the flash-mob people weren’t professional eurythmists. But they certainly out-perform me and many other former waldorf students!!

I’ve never been good at waving, actually. I tend to want to wave the entire arm, thus the eerie nazi resemblance. Or I think that’s the reason. That and being clumsy and not really able to wave gracefully. I should not do any waving. Except when I harvest my BD tomatoes. But I shall be saluting the zodiacal constellations,* not Hitler, mind you.

I’m extremely waving impaired. I’m so clumsy it’s laughable, and I have no idea how what I do with my those too long arms comes across in the world outside. Very little consciousness of limbs — very little movement to brain (and vice versa) connection. No proper feedback ever returns to my brain unless I manage to smash some item or other with these arms. It happens frequently (the skewing helps in this department — home demolition — obviously).

For anyone unfamiliar with eurythmy you can get a better idea of what was going on in the flash-mob video from ‘Part 2’ at this link.

For those who feel one of the gestures looks like a Nazi salute you can see that when a professional eurythmist performs the gestures the ‘Ee’ sound is not static. It is a MOVEMENT that passes through the human being from behind and below to forwards and upwards – approaching verticality. . If anyone is stuck with their arm in a Nazi salute then they have already lost the eurythmy gesture which really only appears in movement. Professional ballet dancers have reported the same thing – that something can appear in movement which is then lost as soon as a static form is produced.
Eurythmy is an art of MOVEMENT not a semaphore- not a language of signs.

I didn’t see the possible nazi salute similarity until Nick pointed it out, but sure… And I know how easy what one does can be interpreted as a nazi salute, lol! (I thought I was waving, that’s not static, either, or is it?) Neither I nor the nazis were stuck, they took their arms down eventually. Continued doing some other movement. So did I. But sure — they (the nazis) weren’t doing anything that resemble the movements of dance. And I wasn’t.

‘Eurythmy is an art of MOVEMENT not a semaphore- not a language of signs.’

But it’s supposed to say something, isn’t it? Convey something? (Of course it is! And I’m not suggesting eurythmy is about saying ‘Heil Steiner!’, or something even worse…)

‘But it’s supposed to say something, isn’t it?’
Not literally, any more than music says something.
Something is communicated or evoked by making visible the gesture, the inner movement of the soul, which is evoked by the sounds of speech or the tones of music. But it is not easy to express what happens anymore than it is easy to express what it is that a piece of music may stir in us.
Though I would agree that sometimes it IS possible to say in words what a piece of music is evoking in us.
Some of your photos communicate or evoke a feeling which cannot really be put into words. That is what makes them special. When I comment on them I do the best I can to say what it is that speaks to me in the image – because of my respect for you. I.e rather than just saying, ‘That’s nice’ which is really the equivalent of making appreciative noises. (Mmmmm… korv och mos!). But there is always something that can’t be put into words. How can one explain the Mona Lisa’s smile?

But it doesn’t necessarily have to be put in words to mean something, is what perhaps I was trying to say. Steiner wanted everything to mean something — his architecture is not just for beauty and practical purpose. It has this whole spiritual thing going. Which he did try to put in words, more or less successfully… So, eurythmy is a spiritual expression. In that sense it ‘says’ something, or conveys something — or is supposed to anyway. More than dance in general, which can be only about beauty. (To people who understand to value it, it’s not really an art form I’ve had patience with — but I know other people do.) Or about invoking emotions. Eurythmy has something else going on.

‘When I comment on them I do the best I can to say what it is that speaks to me in the image – because of my respect for you.’

I love that. I truly find those comments highly interesting, and very useful.

Oh my god you are cracking me up. I was thinking the same thing and thought, no, I must be misunderstanding, this is just too silly and trivial. What is the point of pompously informing us it is an “art of movement”? Trying to claim that this means the symbols aren’t actually symbols is … well the whole thing’s just too silly. Anthroposophical pretzel logic.

I was kidding of course; I don’t seriously believe Falk meant to say they kept their arms raised in a salute forever. But the fact that it’s a continous movement rather than a salute (whose meaning is more static — momentaneous, or what you’d call it) doesn’t mean that the salute isn’t also part of a movement pattern that begins before the recognizable salute part of it and continues after it. (I mean, that’s just stating the obvious really.)

And I would agree that, whether you like it or not, eurythmy is more of an *art* of movement than the Hitler salute.

Of course it’s an art of movement — an art which is spiritually meaningful within the framework of anthroposophy.

‘Falk – perhaps in this way?’
Thetis – that IS one way to explain what happens in a work of art, but to my mind it is like someone watching Alicia waving to her brother and saying, ‘That young woman’s biceps are contracting, the humerus, ulna and radius are raised. The other shoulder muscles are imparting a side to side movement.’ The explanation is true but misses out what is happening at a soul level, which is Alicia’s brother feeling embarrassed and Alicia wanting to greet her brother or draw his attention.
Diana -I don’t think there is anything symbolic in eurythmy. The gesture of ‘Ah’ can be seen in the wide eyes of a child full of wonder, in the expansion of a river estuary into the sea, in the opening of a flower to the sun.

And the problem is,that eurytmists themselfes often does not even know what eurytmi is,or they cannot explain it good enough.They talk about dance…
Eurytmy is the movements larynx does when we sing or speak,shown with the body.And that is,too,the movements our etherical body makes when we sing or speak.
And yes,they made,or at least tried to make, an art of it,more or less succesfull.